GlobalFoundries and Marvell expand collaboration on next-generation optical connectivity

GlobalFoundries and Marvell Technology are widening their partnership on optical connectivity, a move that underscores how urgently the semiconductor industry is racing to solve one of AI’s most stubborn infrastructure bottlenecks: moving data fast enough between chips without melting the power budget. The two companies have been collaborating on silicon photonics since at least 2022, when GlobalFoundries first showcased Marvell’s integration of its silicon-germanium (SiGe) technology into optical components. The expanded collaboration targets next-generation optical interconnects designed specifically for AI-centric data centers, where traditional copper links are increasingly becoming the weakest link in the chain. Why copper can’t keep up Both GlobalFoundries and Marvell are targeting 400G-per-lane optics with power consumption below 5 picojoules per bit, a threshold that would represent a meaningful improvement over current architectures. GlobalFoundries has been developing its SCALE silicon photonics platform, which focuses on co-packaged optics (CPO). CPO places optical components directly alongside the processor die rather than connecting them via separate modules. This shor...